


you can check out any time you like

by fabledshadow



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen, only a year or so late, scene addition for 2x22 'Invincible'
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 13:42:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11037354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabledshadow/pseuds/fabledshadow
Summary: Caitlin leaving CCPD, sure that it's a trick and Zoom is going to kill her, any second, he's going to rip her heart out...





	you can check out any time you like

**Author's Note:**

> I started this when Invincible first aired, and then couldn't finish it for the longest time. But I think this story needed to be told.

She comes back to herself crouching behind a dumpster, the smell of rotting fruit making her gag through her rapid breathing. 

Oh. She’s hyperventilating. She should probably stop that.

A sound from the street makes her cringe, pressing her back into the wall. It passes, whatever it is, but she stays where she is. 

She’s free, for the moment. But where can she go? 

Barry’s dead, had given up his speed and been killed. 

Barry’s dead, but what about the others? Iris and Joe, Harry and Jesse…Cisco. 

If Zoom had killed Cisco, he would have told her, taunted her with it. Maybe even showed her Cisco’s body. Zoom is far too much of a sadist not to inflict the pain Cisco’s death would cause her.

She needs to get back to the lab. Not dead doesn’t mean not hurt. They might need her help. And she’d like to see friendly faces before…before. 

Steeling herself with the thought of her friends, she pushes off from the wall and creeps slowly out of the alley. The street outside is deserted, and she continues down the sidewalk, hugging the outline of the buildings in case she has to find cover quickly. 

Seventh down to Adams Boulevard, three miles or so to the bridge. Over the bridge, another half mile, tops. She can do it. Even through the visible warzone the city has become. 

At the corner of Seventh and Adams, she leans in the brick entrance to a bank and scans the intersection intently. There are screams and smoke billowing a block away, thankfully not in the direction she needs to go. 

Thankfully…or by design? 

Zoom is sending all of these metas out to wreak havoc. He might be evil, and clinically insane, but he isn’t stupid. Unfortunately. 

He had some design in mind. 

What if leaving her a path to Star Labs is part of that plan? 

Maybe he was just going to wait to kill Cisco and the others until she thinks she’s safe.

She’s hyperventilating again.

After she forces herself to focus on breathing slowly, to a counted rhythm, until her heart is at least semi-settled; she surveys the intersection again. There’s a flash, just a flicker really, of blue light, and she freezes. It’s an ambulance picking its way down the street, red and blue light announcing its presence to anyone who cares to look. 

She wants to run to them, tell them to stop drawing attention to themselves for G-d’s sake. 

She wants the attention on herself even less.

Foolish as their actions might be, at least their intentions are noble. They’re trying to save someone. 

Caitlin remembers her triage lessons well. You can’t save everyone. It’s a fact. 

You do what you can, though. 

She follows the ambulance down Adams.

Her red-and-blue sprite leaves her at the turnoff for the hospital. A little stupid, really, there’s no way Zoom won’t send someone to attack the hospital. 

Or do it himself. 

She forces herself not to remember Jitters. 

Adams is a slow, nerve-wracking crawl, jumping at every noise and shadow. The bridge is covered in the aftermath of a fight-piled cars and debris, burnt out, small embers glowing here and there. Their fire burns unnaturally bright in Caitlin’s vision, drawing her in, mesmerizing. 

A second or an hour later, a distant resonant thud sends her skittering to the other side of the bridge and behind a concrete abutment. There’s another pillar of smoke rising near downtown, and Caitlin turns away before she can place it as the hospital. 

This side of the bridge is relatively dark and quiet, compared to the rest of the city. She’s come this far, she can make it to Star Labs.

If only she could get her legs to work.

Horrific visions of what she’ll find at the lab swirl in her head. Zoom has let her go, knowing she’d run straight to the safety of the lab, the lab scattered with the bodies of her friends.

brave, beautiful, kind Iris

steady, compassionate Joe

bright Jesse and her father, burning with love for his daughter

Cisco, so beloved, she can’t see him, can’t see what Zoom will do to him.

_G-d, filled with mercy, dwelling in the heights…_

The street lights are all dark. A little further around the curve of the road and she will be able to see if the lab emergency generator is on or not.

She forces herself to stand up, to take one shaky step forward. Then, another, steadier this time. And another. 

Lights, muted but there, shine through the chain link fence running the perimeter of the lab. 

Just a few more steps.

A rush of quiet, clean air, a familiar corridor, and,

_Cisco?_

“Caitlin!?”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still not sure I'm entirely happy with it.


End file.
